Thank you for visiting our forum. As a guest, you have limited access to view some discussion and articles. By joining our free community, you will be able to view all discussions and articles, post your own topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload photos, participate in Pick'Em contests and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today!!

A friend and I were recently discussing college football and somehow we ended up talking about SOS and his reputation with QB's. We both acknowledged his reputation as the chief QB guru in college football. But then my friend wondered aloud why that was the case when none of his QB's have done particularly well in the NFL. And it took until Shaw for SOS to really hit it with a QB here. Given the lack of NFL success, I had a hard time coming up with an explanation for how his QB's weren't just system QB's.

So, I'm coming here, the center for football wisdom. I'd like a good explanation for next time I chat with this guy! Do you just throw NFL success totally out the window as a gauge?

Yes and No. Some guys are good in college, others good in the NFL. I think what translates into a good NFL QB is your kind of on your own. SOS can't coach up Connor Shaw in the NFL, but Connor Shaw can coach himself up. Which I think he has done very well. Some QB's can do it better than others. I think it really comes down to the ability to stay focused, and on your game, to not let up, and to study study study until your time comes. His QBs at Florida were successful, but they also had a million tools to work with. Shaw had tools as well, I guess it depends on the personality really. No one coach is bread and butter when it comes to coaching a QB to be successful in the NFL, in the end it is the QB themselves that have to make it happen. Coaching only goes so far.

Yes....but look at the bigger picture....how many QBs have done particularly well overall? And how many good college QBs did it take to produce that handful of great QBs?

I don't think HBC is a QB "guru"....I do think he was once-upon-a-time an offensive guru that has morphed into a HBC guru. What makes him unique as a HBC coach, is he won the Heisman and played in the NFL for 10 years, and has built winners everywhere he's coached. No HBC or QB coach in the nation has that kind of cred.

Spurrier helps QB's excel because his instinctive playcalling. He has a tremendous feel for the game. He can mentally prepare (with help from Mangus) the QB for whatever the defense is doing because he's a good play caller.

Sometimes the player just needs to handle their business. You could argue that not until Shaw/Thompson, no QB really got their head on straight for lack of a better term. I think if Thompson has a great year, it will say alot about Spurrier and his development of QB's. Take into consideration that the QB position has somewhat changed over the last 10 years and he did adapt to it.